cayugad

Well many will disagree with me, and where I live I could let the devil hang all winter and it would be frozen solid... I get the skin off the first day only because it is easier to get off a warm deer then a cold one. Besides it is down to below zero or close to it every night now. I would have to heat the garage to let a deer "cure" or as my old grandfather used to call it, let them "rot tender" a while.

An easy way to get the hide off is hang it from a VERY STRONG RAFTER OR POLE. The take a knife and start dressing the deer hide down off the carcass. Put a larger round rock under the hide and loop a strong rope around the hide and rock and hook that to the four wheeler. While someone VERY SLOWLY drives the four wheeler away, it will tear that hide off cleaner then a whistle, leaving no hair and a smooth fresh hide (easier to tan that way.. less work). All the second guy does is stands there with a very sharp knife and kind of guides the hide off and touches with the knife blade to spots that are holding tight. You can take a hide off a deer in a matter of minutes, there is no hair or dirt on it, and it is nice and clean.

After I get the hide off, I quarter the thing. I then let it hang only to firm up. Usually overnight or a day, not much longer then that. This also gives any blood in the veins a chance to run out also. Once it is firm, I take that deer and de-bone all the major muscle groups and then cut it into steaks and roast. Of course the backstraps are butterfly chops.. what else. And the stuff left over is ground to burger meat and made into Venison Salami and sticks.

So to answer your question, I let them hang about one day is all. I have never had a tuff or game tasting venison yet (other then one old swamp buck shot in full rut, many years ago. You could not even cook that rascal in the house he would stink it up so bad. He ended up all sausage). Maybe because of their diet it makes a difference.